Canonical’s Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition

Long-term support (LTS) version of popular server operating system generally available on 29 April

LONDON, April 27, 2010: Canonical today announced the upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition which includes extended security and maintenance updates free of charge to all users for five years (versus 18 months for a standard release). The third and latest LTS version of the popular Linux server distribution, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, delivers on the standing commitment to release a long term support version of Ubuntu every two years and builds on the success of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, which has been a hugely popular deployment platform with Ubuntu enterprise users. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will be available for free download on Thursday 29 April.

In addition to the stability of long-term support, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS extends the cloud-computing capability of Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, powered by Eucalyptus – a technology that is becoming widely used as a basis for building private and hybrid clouds. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS also includes many major applications and packagesadded or updated since the previous LTS release, giving new and upgrading users an extended range of applications that can be easily installed at launch.

"IDC’s models show Ubuntu accounting for 5 percent share of paid subscriptions and nonpaid deployments of new copies of Linux worldwide in 2009. Underlying that number is a nonpaid share of nearly 6 percent, and a paid share of 4.5 percent, with higher shares in some regions such as the US," said Al Gillen, program VP, System Software, IDC. "We find it impressive for the company to have achieved that level of success in a relatively short time, into what is today a relatively mature market."

Growing Ecosystem for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition:

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will also see a larger ecosystem of open-source and proprietary application providers certifying their applications on Ubuntu Server Edition than ever before. Almost 100 organisations have signaled their intent to certify applications on the platform, including Alfresco, Ingres, IBM, VMware, Zimbra, Yahoo! and many others with more expected to follow post-launch.

"The range of industry, analyst and user support we are seeing for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on server has the makings of a breakout release for this technology," said Jane Silber, CEO, Canonical. "We can consolidate the significant technical advances we’ve made since the last LTS release onto a stable, secure and long-term supported platform that the industry is gathering around. This is exciting for us, for our partners and most of all for our users and I expect to see Ubuntu adoption accelerate as a core infrastructure layer for volume services and cloud computing in the world’s data centres."

Dell has announced its intention to support Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition and will offer Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud as an option on its PowerEdge-C product line – servers specifically designed for building cloud environments. "At Dell, we want to provide customers with options and choice," said Andy Rhodes, director, Dell. "We see Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud as a great potential option for customers interested in building out their cloud capabilities."